


Time and Time Again

by Readytojump



Category: Portal (Video Game), Portal Stories Mel - Fandom
Genre: Aperture Laboratory, Blood, Canon Typical Violence, Epic Bromance, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I don't dissociate but, I think there is something like dissociation in this story, Major Character Injury, Turrets - Freeform, Virgil being Virgil, in case anyone needs to know that, these two are going to be the death of me, which means sarcasm as a defense mechanism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-23 07:42:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18149045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Readytojump/pseuds/Readytojump
Summary: So closeSo infuriatingly close to AEGIS, to the endBut turrets and bullets have other ideasAnd, well, so does the LaboratoryOh,the LaboratoryThe place has a mind of its own





	Time and Time Again

 

    It all happened because of one damn slip.

 

    One misstep propelled by too much velocity that slid her further than she had meant to land, and now, before she had the chance to blink, she was out in the open, beyond the linings of slick black panels that had previously run alongside her, serving as a protection.

    A protection for herself from spinning, burning bullets that swept their aim in her direction with soft voices of, “there you are,” red lights swift and immediately stilling on her skin.

    But now that solid protection seemed a thousand miles behind her as she skid to a stop, an open target on the rickety catwalk, her throat tight enough to crush coal to diamond - were the legend true, of course.

    “Hello,” several gentle voices prodded the dead silent air in unison from across the gaping pit that dominated the space between themselves and Mel.

    Calling the room the turrets sat in a test would be too grand a compliment; it was lucky to be titled a quarter of what was _once_ a testing room, littered with half blown apart, much less _talkative_ turrets, a repulsion gel pipe thrown on one wall, and a funnel generator on another. As Mel turned her head, she saw that there were certainly more than just several, as their voices had suggested; over a dozen tiny white robots perched in neat rows in the center of the… _box_ and floated their ruby gazes over to the base of Mel’s throat, over her heart, grazing her temples, and anywhere else they deemed lethally penetrable.

    Lined up parallel to the catwalk, the turrets, with their far reaching shots and jittery eyes that never left Mel, easily expressed their dominance over the situation; nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

     _Die._

    Mel’s heart pounded furiously against her ribcage, pumping blood to her limbs and _demanding_ that she do something _useful_ with that energy. But in an instant, as she flicked her eyes back over to the rest of the catwalk in front of her, and subsequently to the path behind her, her gut instinct told her there was simply not enough time to go in either direction, and her muscles froze over, planting her firmly in place. Any hope she had of allowing her flight instinct to take over had utterly vanished along with the feeling that any of this was real.

    Because for one small, _beautiful_ moment, all of this - the decades lost to unnatural sleep, technology allowing her to walk through walls, turrets with lasers pointed directly at her chest - none of it was real.

    Time stopped. The air at once vanished from the facility. Finally, _finally_ , it had all come to an end. All the running through darkened halls and jumping over moats of flesh eating goo pools and solving of tests that had her yanking her hair out, one messy red strand at a time, had come to this very moment to end. Mel couldn’t even prompt herself to feel a speck of remorse or fear as, truly, none of this was real.

    But then, in the distance, vaguely, blearily, as though coming through water, a voice broke through, blurred out and speaking much too quickly to decipher.

     _Who would be here?_ Mel’s mind listed off curiosities lethargically. _Who could have possibly climbed into this dream state of the world she stood in? And to yell at her at that? How was that possible?_

    Slowly, the voice became more and more discernible, until finally, at the end of its owner’s frantic tirade, she could make out six startlingly clear words.

    “Mel! What are you doing? _Run!"_

**Author's Note:**

> Hello ~ I'm so glad you made it to the end! I've got a idea about where I want this story to go, and I'd be glad to have you come along for the ride. You know these two, they're just going to get into trouble - we might as well have fun watching. I'll keep posting if people let me know they want to read it. Thank you again, I'm quite excited to write this.


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